Monday, January 2, 2017

Reflections on Ayurveda - Question 2

Samkhya philosophy is a story of the universe. It is an evolutionary view of life in which all of the elements of the universe emerged and have evolved over time. This means that even though the shape of the atoms, which compose our present body, have changed over time, the basic energetic material, which we are, has existed since the birth of the universe. This view coincides with that of modern physics and its significance is that it gives us a practical means of understanding the yogic concept of the true Self as immortal. From this perspective, there is an essential part of the Self, which is unborn and undying. What is your own view of the origin or development of the universe? You may journal on this or illustrate your vision as a drawing or picture of the universe as you see it and your place in it at this point in

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This question is so complicated. I don't know what caused the origin of the universe. My father believed in science and taught me the big bang theory.

"When the universe began, it was just hot, tiny particles mixed with light and energy. It was nothing like what we see now. As everything expanded and took up more space, it cooled down.The tiny particles grouped together. They formed atoms. Then those atoms grouped together. Over lots of time, atoms came together to form stars and galaxies.The first stars created bigger atoms and groups of atoms called molecules. That led to more stars being born. At the same time, galaxies were crashing and grouping together. As new stars were being born and dying, then things like asteroids, comets, planets, and black holes formed!"

My mother's side of the family were Christians and preferred this explanation

"The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity.[1] It is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first (Genesis 1:1–2:3) Elohim, the Hebrew generic plural word for God, creates the heavens and the earth in six days, starting with light on the first day and ending with mankind on the sixth, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh. In the second story (Genesis 2:4–2:24), God, now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, where he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's rib as a companion."
I am drawn to Hindu philosophy and drawn to the idea that the universe has always been and will be although it hasn't always been the same.

"According to Hindu philosophy, the universe (or multiverse) never came to be at some particular point, but always has been, always will be, but is perpetually in flux. Space and time are of cyclical nature. This universe is simply the current one, which is in flux and constantly changing, when it finally ceases to manifest, a new one will arise. An interesting parallel to these ideas can be found in the ekpyrotic model of the universe. This concept is also accepted by Buddhist Dharma.
I feel closest to this interpretation but don't believe in all the gods as glorified humanoids I see gods as archetypes and ideas

The birth of the universe (Brahma) is followed by the life of the universe (Vishnu) and the destruction of the universe (Shankar) Or (Mahesh).(Shiva) is the supreme power, whose (Shankar) is just a part, who was given form on request of Vishnu and Brahma, because they believed they couldn't maintain the balance of the universe alone, without Lord Shiva's supervision, and he, (shiva) After creating Vishnu and brahma and settling a balance in the universe wished to go for eternal meditation, henceforth, creating Shankar (often confused or considered same as Shiva) who was assigned lord shiva's power and entity. And thus maintaining the balance of the universe.
I love the idea of Vishnu dreaming the world and if I could just chose a creation myth I like that would be my favorite.In a number of stories from the Puranas the continual creation and destruction of the universe is equated to the outwards and inwards breaths of the gigantic cosmic Maha Vishnu."

I think if we want to know about creation we can turn to our own indigenous peoples for their explanations. Here are some other creation myths that I love -Apache Myth

"In the beginning nothing existed, only darkness was everywhere. Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colors appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colours. He also created three other gods: a little girl, a Sun-God and a small boy.Then he created celestial phenomena, the winds, the tarantula, and the earth from the sweat of the four gods mixed together in the Creator's palms, from a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean. The world was expanded to its current size by the gods kicking the small brown ball until it expanded. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up.The tarantula, the trickster character, spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared. Then the Creator created the rest of the beings and features of the Earth."Iroquis Creation Story

The Iroquois account of demiurge is that in the beginning there was no earth to live on, only a watery abyss, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a community called the Sky World including a woman who dreamed dreams.One night she dreamed about the tree that was the source of light. The dream frightened her, so she went and asked the men in the Sky World to pull up the tree. They dug around the trees roots to make space for more light, and the tree fell through the hole and disappeared. After that there was only darkness. Distraught, they pushed the woman through the hole as well. The woman would have been lost in the abyss had not a fish hawk come to her aid using his feathers to pillow her.The fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own, so he asked for help to create some firm ground for the woman to rest upon. A helldiver went down to the bottom of the sea and brought back mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dove down again for more. Ducks also brought beaksful of the ocean floor and to spread over the turtle's shell.The beavers helped build terrain, making the shell bigger. The birds and the animals built the continents until they had made the whole round earth, while the woman was safely sitting on the turtle's back. The turtle continues to hold the earth on its back.After this, one of the Spirits of the Sky World came down and looked at the earth. As he traveled over it, he found it beautiful, and so he created people to live on it and gave them special skills; each tribe of the Iroquois nation was given special gifts to share with the rest of humanity.